March 28, 2022 | by Creative Armenia

Suren Tadevosyan, 2023 Creative Armenia-AGBU Fellow, at the opening of his X-Ray Yerevan exhibition. 2021, Yerevan.

Every city lives million lives. Every person sheds countless layers. Visual artist and cinematographer Suren Tadevosyan has devoted his artistic talent to introducing these hidden matters into people’s lives with skill and grace. His art – from the portrait series Biographia to multimedia explorations of Armenia’s capital X-Ray Yerevan – is both profound and accessible, a rare combination that makes his works exceptionally impactful.

But just as his art is layered, so is his creative process, emerging out of countless sketches, failed experiments, and abandoned curiosities. Discover the creative world of our 2022 Creative Armenia-AGBU Fellow Suren Tadevosyan from the interview.

"I find myself constantly inspired by the era we live in. Our century is full of monumental events that ignite our creativity and make history."

Tell us a little about how you began your journey of becoming a producer and filmmaker.

Visual arts have always been a deep passion of mine. In 1998, I decided to explore my skills in video production. From shooting music videos to working on TV, I was eager to immerse myself in the world of moving images. One day, Artsyom Melkumyan, a renowned Armenian cinematographer, offered me to work as his assistant on one of his film projects. The experience was truly life-changing. The world of cinema completely consumed me and became an integral part of my life.

Tell us about your creative inspirations – whether those are people, things, or phenomena – and what you have learned from them.

I find myself constantly inspired by the era we live in. Our century is full of monumental events that ignite our creativity and make history. It's an incredibly exciting time to be alive, create, and innovate.

Many of your creative projects, including Biographia or X-Ray Yerevan, focus on looking beyond the surface – be it a person or a city – and present familiar subjects from unexpected perspectives. What attracts you to the subject matter? How do you know which ideas are worth following?

For me, deciding which ideas are worth following is an intuIntuitive process. Some ideas just stick with me, and as I work on them, they start to take shape and eventually become a reality. It’s satisfying to watch ideas grow and develop into something meaningful.

For the subject matter to attract me, I need to feel an emotional connection to it. Be it a human or an object, there should be a theme connecting us.